As-Sajda (The Prostration)

7. “He Who made best everything that He created, and He began the creation of man from clay,”

8. “Then He made his progeny of an extraction of mean water,”

Everything is created by Allah, and that the Qur’an has mentioned ‘man’ separately beside all the things of existence shows the particular importance and value of man.

This verse points to the best system of creation in general, and it is a beginning for the statement of man being created and being gradually completed particularly.

It says:

“He Who made best everything that He created…”

Whatever He created He gave it whatever it needed. In other words, He established the great building of creation on ‘the best system’; i.e. He appointed it on such a firm system that something more complete than it could not be considered.

He created relationship and harmony among all beings, and He bestowed on each of them whatever they demanded by non-verbal language.

If we look carefully at the stature of a human beings and think about every one of the systems of his body we see that, from the point of construction, volume, the condition of cells, and the manner of their work have been just created in a way that they can perform their duty very well; and in the meantime He has appointed such a relation between the organs that all of them, with no exception, affect on each other and are affected by each other.

And this meaning is exactly seen in the whole universe with many varieties of creatures, specially in the world of living beings that have some organizations entirely different.

Yes, it He Who gives kinds of pleasant perfumes to various flowers; and it is He Who endows spirit on clay and from it He makes a clever and free man. And also He creates kinds of flowers, sometimes men, sometimes other sorts of being from this very clay. Even the soil itself also contains, in its turn, whatever it must have.

Similar to this meaning is that which we recite in Surah Ta-Ha, No. 20, verse 50 from the tongue of Moses and Aaron:

“…‘Our Lord is He Who gave everything its creation, then guided it aright’.”

Then, after mentioning this extroversive proposition, the Qur’an begins the introversive discussion, and in the same manner that in the extroversive verses it referred to a few branches of Monotheism, here it speaks about a few great merits concerning man. At first it says:

“…and He began the creation of man from clay,”

He did so in order to show His Own greatness and Power: that He has created such a magnificent creature from this simple and valueless material; and He created man, the picturesque attractive being, from mud. And He did so in order to warn man that where he has come from and where he will go to.

It is clear that this verse speaks about the creation of Adam (human) not all men, because the continuation of his seed is referred to in the next verse; and the outward of this verse is a clear reason for the independent creation of man.

This meaning becomes clearer in regard to the verse which says:

“Verily the likeness of Jesus, with Allah, is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust…”1

And also it says:

“And certainly We created man of raw clay, of black mud moulded”2

From the totality of these verses it is understood that the creation of man was in the form of an independent creation which came into being from dust and mud.

The next verse points to the creation of man’s progeny and how the children of Adam are born in later stages.

It says:

“Then He made his progeny of an extraction of mean water,”

The Arabic word /ja‘ala/ here means ‘creation’; and the term /nasl/ indicates to progeny and grand children in all stages.

The Qur’anic term /sulalah/ originally means extract and pure squeezed material of anything, and its purpose here is the man’s seed which, in fact, is the extract of the clay of his entity and it is the source of life and the essential cause of the birth of offspring and continuation of generation.

This water which apparently is a worthless water from the point of construction and the life cells which are floating in it, is a particular combination of a fluid wherein cells are floating and it is very delicate and extraordinarily exact and complicated. It is counted one of the signs of the greatness, power and knowledge of Allah.

The Arabic term /mahin/, which means: weak, mean, and naughty, refers to the outward situation of water, else it is one of the most mysterious beings.